Patient transport is a critical aspect of emergency response operations. In many cases when a patient is injured, the movement of the patient between their initial position and the location of their medical treatment is a dangerous process which must nevertheless be undertaken with great haste. In particular, the process of picking up a patient in a safe manner and transporting them into the bed of an ambulance or the like is difficult on both patient and emergency personnel. As such, wide range of different types and variations of patient lifting devices are utilized with regularity, including stretchers, backboards, gurneys, and the like.
As mentioned, the process of picking up a patient in a safe manner and transporting them into the bed of an ambulance or the like can be very physically strenuous on the attendant emergency personnel. In an effort to both make haste in attending to a patient and keep them in a safe, secure position, a medic is prone to neglect their own posture and physical safety. Prolonged improper posture and lifting procedure consistently leads to back, knee, or other long term injuries and lifelong discomfiture. Also, such practices can subtly endanger the patient as well.
Various attempts have been made to provide devices to assist in the stable lifting of unwieldy objects. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,181,752, issued in the name of Seltzer et al., describes a means for carrying luggage, bags, and the like. The Seltzer device provides a harness with an attachment means for helping to support luggage and the like during prolonged carrying.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,526, issued in the name of Hollick, describes a lifting apparatus for use in lifting a disabled person or patient. The Hollick apparatus is a harness which may be worn by a disabled person in order to allow them to be more easily lifted by an external lifting apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,389, issued in the name of Ripoyla et al., describes a harness system for lifting objects. The Ripoyla device provides a means for a pair of people to more easily manipulate very heavy objects.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are only adaptable to particular types or sizes of objects. Also, many such devices do not provide a storage means for tools and other such objects which may be useful during such lifting operations. Furthermore, many such devices do not allow for use by a plurality of persons coordinating lifting on a single target. In addition, many such devices do not provide secure attachment means to common paramedic equipment used in the transport of people. Moreover, many such devices do not provide additional lifting handles which assist in the initial lifting of an object or patient in addition to supporting means for the subsequent stable transport of such an object or patient. Accordingly, there exists a need for a support harness without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.